GM apple campaign: rotten to the core

Help us stop the genetically engineered apple being developed in the Okanagan by Okanagan Specialty Fruits.

This is an apple being genetically engineered so it doesn’t go brown for 15 days. All municipalities in BC, the BC Fruit Growers’ Association, organic apple growers, and even McDonalds and Gerber in the U.S. have said they don’t want the genetically engineered (or GM for genetically modified) apple.

Join the retail campaign and visit a local store and ask them to commit to not selling the GE apple. For a backgrounder, go here GMO Backgrounder

We need to stop this. However, I’m concerned that the process required for people to take action is just too much work. To have to print, collect signatures, and then send it off to an MP will definitely turn people away.

Is there anyway an online petition could be created for this? Or are online signatures not acceptable for this petition?

Hi Laura, unfortunately online petitions are not acceptable in the BC Legislature or in the House of Commons. We don’t think it will be too much work, we already have a few thousand signatures and we just started collecting a few weeks ago. People really don’t want the GE apple.

Hi Shelley, we can’t present an online petition to the BC Legislature. Online petitions are really useful for some things such as general advocacy, but this campaign is targeted to MLAs and they need hard copy petitions. We have a few thousand signatures already so people are working on this. Hope you find a printer soon (-:

Hi everyone,
There will be a special screening of “GMO OMG” on Wednesday, April 9th at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in the Auditorium hosted by Green Ideas Network and Kwantlen Horticulture Department starting at 7:15 pm. Harold Steeves will be our guest speaker. Refreshments, door prizes.
Admission by donation. See http://www.greenideasnetwork.org for more info or contact Betty.Cunnin@kpu.ca

Slow browning apple? Who needs that? Nobody. I’d rather buy and eat an apple with a bug hole it than know it may act with free radical’s(doing genetic and cellular damage). when ingested; or knowing it has been marinated in pesticides/herbicides. Biodegradable or not, how benign can it become? Limited. Reactive products are still distributed to the ecosystem.
Never mind if Gmo foods are safe to eat like the BT strains(biotoxin) the fact that I first heard of GMO company’s suing private farmers in like year 1999 for having patented genetic material in traditional private stock via windblown pollen is absurd and is reason enough to boycott these company’s, and their products. I started learning about GMO foods 2years ago in sincerity; actually frightening. Monsanto used to make long banned DDT and agent orange(used in vietnam) assisted the US gov’t with the Manhattan project. Bacteria found living in old leaky pesticide vats were sampled ‘glued’ to viruses glued to gold molecules(like lead in a bullet for weight) they invade/combine with living cells. Carrying the foreign DNA to the plant cell via compressed air guns until it works. GMO’s are likely unstable and can act as free radicals when eaten. These strains can withstand massive pesticide/herbicide sprays killing everything but it. The BT variety are make to produce deterrent amounts of toxins for insects …why wouldn’t this be somewhat toxic to us? Don’t know how not. India has many cases where livestock die from the foder of expensive GMO cotton variety’s . Bloody horror story’s. Suicides to the tune apparently to the tune of 240,000 people due to crop failures, mostly male father’s; supposedly in. Indian law,if the contract holder dies the debt is void. Lobbying to make it difficult for small farmers to save their own seeds? Madness. My last box of kellogs raisin bran. Obviously I’m not against science but it’s moot to the point, like nukes, good experiment but NOT a good idea.

Thanks for your comments Jonathan. Did you know that about 50% of food in North America is wasted? I don’t think the introduction of a genetically engineered apple which most consumers (69% in the most recent poll) and all Tree Fruit Growers Associations in Canada don’t want will reduce waste much.

Hi Jonathan, your choice, but I WANT to know what i am eating. Waste your own food. But i use what it buy and buy it local from farmers I know. The whole system MONSANTO, GOVERNMENT, DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW. That is the point of it. I want the choice to know. Not to be hidden.

As an organic Apple producer, I have been notified by the certification board that any grower who has GMO Apples in the vicinity of their farm will lose their Apple certification!!! GMO Pollen will contaminate neighbouring Apple trees rendering them UNCERTIFIABLE. This is true about all other crops too- especially devastating for organic seed growers. So this is not just about what an individual eats, it’s an assault on the Organic industry too.

I have to object to having the gm apple in stores.
It is such a Canadian pride to be able to go into local grocery stores and purchase BC fruit, without worrying that it is genetically modified.
Once long term studies are conducted and funded NOT by Monsanto, that prove no Ling term harm, it is inhumane to allow them in our market. Humans are not to be tested on, especially unknowingly.
This is not “Canadian”. Let’s set ourselves apart from our neighboura downstairs.

The only thing wrong with this apple is the scientific illiteracy of the people opposing it, who know nothing about it, how it came about, and the hard work put into breeding it. There’s nothing harmful about this apple. A GMO is not an additive, it’s a breeding technique. A gene is not an additive, it’s a recipe. Fear mongering at it’s finest.

James, thank you very much for your comment. As to the scientific credentials of GE Free BC, we are advised by Dr. Thierry Vrain, who is a genetic engineer and who headed up the BC Summerland research centre where the prototype of the GE apple was developed about 12 years back. So we are certainly aware of how the apple came about and the science behind it. We are also a member of CBAN, which receives scientific advice from internationally renowned academic specialists in genetic engineering.

Please stop this g m o apple and its associated pesticide usage from entering our food chain. This untested science has to stop being pushed on Canadians. The only benefit is to the manufacturer. Apple browning is. A non issue but the release of these products is life threatening to our health our environment and our childrens futures. We need many independant long term studies before any more of these products are released. Seriously why would any minister elected by Canadian taxpayers endorse products that may cause harm because a company developed it to make a profit.